Makes NO Sense Compulsions

     Here at Capernwray, time seems to be poured out like a teakettle through a strainer into a cup of tea. The water in the teakettle is time. Going through the strainer full of tea leaves means events and scheduled plans get stopped for a while while the flavour (NZ spelling flavour vs. flavor - I wrote it then left it as is) it enhances throughout the months to come is in the cup of tea. My cup of tea this semester has been a very strong black taste so far. There has been a lot going on already and it feels I've already lived my 5 months here - 1. because the time goes by so fast...and 2. because God has been showing me a lot.

      For example, we had a ministry class a couple weeks ago and the person speaking, out of the blue, had some of us returning students get up and share the Gospel under 2 minutes to the class. We all did that last semester so it wasn't anything new but it had been awhile since we did it. That afternoon before the class, I felt like we were going to do it that night and also that I was going to be one of the ones picked on so I felt it best to prepare. Looking over my notes from last semester, I came up with some hand motions to portray the gospel visually - one of the students last semester had drawn the gospel story on a whiteboard which really helped because I'm a visual learner. I went over it quite a few times because I realized I didn't come up with the hand motions on my own and I wanted to share the gospel the best I could with the motions and idea that God had given me. At the end of the class that night, Michael called up Leonie and Andrew to share. I thought, ok maybe he'll call on me another night. But it didn't match up because I felt I was supposed to share that particular night. After Leonie and Andrew shared the gospel story beautifully, Michael said, "Oh and wait, Avonlea, you're going to share too." That's what I was expecting. Don't you love when God tells you something ahead of time! I shared what he had put on my heart to share and even though I got nervous as I always do in front of people, I stuck it out, thanks to the burning desire to say what God wanted me to show. 

      In this story, God used a past student (Caleb) to plant the idea of visually presenting the gospel. Then God used Michael to impulsively pick me to share that night after 2 students had already presented fabulously. Finally He used me to share what He wanted me to say. In stories like this, I've always kept quiet about how God used different people when I could see where all the strings came from and how they led to His glory. However, I've learned that by keeping God's workings quiet, we diminish the scope of glory that people praise Him with when they see all that he's doing. So I just wanted to share that with you and encourage you to tell people if you feel that compulsion as well. We might never hear a result that comes out of the compulsion, but if we know that's God's will - we don't need the pride of a result.